Love Letters

FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos, after having been repeatedly accused by FIDE President Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov of attempting a coup d’état to bypass the electoral process and wrest power by force, has finally provided a written response through the FIDE web site. He offers to prove that Ilyumzhinov actually resigned (even if only verbally) through the “recorded tape minutes of the meeting”.

Esset, Castrice, cum mali coloris, versus scribere coepit Oppianus. Because his pallor, Castricus, got worse, Oppianus started writing verse. Quando s’accorse d’aver brutta cera, a scriver versi incominciò Oppiano.

Martial, Epigrams, Book 7, IV
English translation by Susan McLean
Italian translation by Giuseppe Lipparini